InterGalactic Medicine Show #69, June/July 2019

“For Sale: Veterinary Practice On Sigma 4; Certain Conditions Apply” by Jared Oliver Adams

Reviewed by Kat Day

This is the last ever issue of Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show and, fittingly, all the stories are loosely themed around family, loss, moving on and saying goodbye.

We learn in the “The Story Behind the Stories” section of this issue that “For Sale: Veterinary Practice On Sigma 4; Certain Conditions Apply,” by Jared Oliver Adams, came about from a writing prompt where the author was given the title, and then wrote a story inspired by said title. The piece begins with Helouise, a newly-qualified student of veterinary medicine, making the decision to travel to Sigma 4—where the air is only “slightly toxic”—in a ship controlled by a deranged AI. Somehow, she makes it in one piece, only to immediately run into trouble with the locals when she tries to enact her plan of selling her ship to buy the titular veterinary practice. This story is great fun, and rollicks along at a brisk pace. Helouise is a likeable protagonist, and the world Adams has created is packed full of weird and wonderful creatures. I would love to see this extended into a longer work—there’s got to be scope here for an SF/Fantasy “All Creatures Great and Small” series of novels. For my money, this title found its perfect writer.

“Into the Roots of the World, Bearing Light,” by Jeremy A. TeGrotenhuis, has a much more serious tone. It begins with Eylis tying a marriage garland around the hilt of her groom’s sword, and quickly moves to the marriage bed, where Aryk, her new husband, worries that he’s oath-bound to fight should he be called by Baldur. The story then jumps ahead three years, to the point where their fears are realized: Aryk has to leave, while Eylis, by this time, has a young child to look after. The story of Eylis and her son, Jonna, continues, with Aryk coming and going, increasingly scarred by battle. Jonna falls ill, Aryk is forced to choose between family and duty, and Eylis makes a dramatic decision. This story packs a lot into its 6,000 words, making great use of Norse mythology to conjure a genuinely epic feel. If you like mythology-inspired tales, this one will be for you.

In “To Know and Be Known,” by Aimee Ogden, we meet Rrela, an engineer who is building a tower to reach the heavens, and has been doing so for thirty years. Then someone sets off a bomb, and Rrela has to decide what she can, and can’t, save. At the same time, in flashback, we learn about how she became the chief engineer. This is a story which poses the question of whether it is worth sacrificing parts of your life in order to get a little closer to the stars. We are left with the sense that Rrela doesn’t regret her decisions, but it’s a thought-provoking piece that will leave you wondering about your own life choices.

After two lovely, but rather mournful, pieces “The Chaos Crushers’ Day Off,” by Alethea Kontis, brings us back to something much more lighthearted. It begins with Persimmon Petalwhisper—Persi to her friends—expressing her exasperation at the fact that one of her team is late. She is a member of a small group of questers (the Chaos Crushers of the title) who find themselves with some downtime when High Wizard Vasim is struck down by a sleeping sickness. The group decide to play a Dungeons and Dragons-type game, if such a thing existed in a world that actually contained both dungeons and dragons, and magic. Thanks to a fortuitous dice roll, Persi ends up as the Game Master, and events, of course, unfold. This is a warm-hearted story with a positive message about teamwork at its core—it’s impossible to read without smiling.

The penultimate story in this issue is “Last Days at Rosewood House,” by Sarah Grey. It begins at the Rosewood House Hospice, where Raul has reached the end of his life. However, the main character here is not Raul, but rather the building itself, which collects the key moments of its resident’s lives as they pass on. We watch from the Rosewood’s point of view as a coroner’s van comes to collect Raul, and as new patients arrive. It takes particular interest in Jacqueline Stone, a very tall woman who takes an immediate dislike to Rosewood House. This is a fantastically original story. There have been a few pieces recently told from the point of view of buildings, but this really does the concept justice. The house manages to be clever and manipulative despite being a thing of bricks and mortar, and we really get the sense that it and Jacqueline are worthy adversaries to each other. A well-paced and clever story that’s a very entertaining read.

“Long Hair,” by Stefan Slater, is this issue’s audio story, narrated by Kaitlin Bellamy. The story is a riff on the well-known Rapunzel story, in which the long-haired protagonist is trapped in a tower by an old woman. Except that this story takes some interesting, and deliciously creepy, twists and turns. You may think you’ve read every Rapunzel-inspired story you ever needed to read but, trust me, this is a good one. The narration is beautiful, too, and well worth a listen. The perfect bitter-sweet note with which to say goodbye to this much-loved SFF magazine.

Kat Day is really very sad that IGMS is going, and would like to wish editor Scott Roberts all the best for the future. You can follow Kat on Twitter @chronicleflask.